Sunday, September 17, 2006

So, a manifesto, then:

Call it the Sexbot Manifesto if you like. I am proud to stand by my sexbot sisters if this is what the alternative looks like. Breast-jutting, cocksucking, sports corset-and-fetish-heel-wearing, husband-pleasing-housecleaning, out-and-out-prostituting and all. Because, among other things? I've been meeting a lot of such women lately, and you know what? As far as actually supporting other women goes? These women, at least? They're a lot more "feminist" than you in my book, even if they don't apply the moniker to themselves at all. (And if they don't, may I note, I lay the responsibility squarely at your feet. Not Rush Limbaugh; not the "backlash;" you. Too, at least. You're walking self-parodies, some of y'all, especially. You and your REALNESS bullshit). Also, frankly, a lot smarter and a lot more interesting. And more interested. In other people. In other women.

But bottom line:

It goes like this. In my book? "Feminist" = "concerned about women and furthering womens' rights, ideally maybe eventually does something useful to that end." It does NOT mean "appointed myself my sister's keeper, on account of I'm vicariously embarassed by her, or some shit like that;" and ESPECIALLY not in the area of personal adornment and sexual choices--and yes goddamit I said choices, they may be shaped by the System but they're no less valid than yours no matter how much self-righteous up-your-own-arsehole gazing you've done.

Because

1) My body, my choice. Yeah, it's individualist, it's Enlightenment-based, there are things you could pick at with it; but the thing is, lemon drop? You ain't doing that. In fact, I submit, you don't know the first thing about what you're talking about when it comes to your ideological ancestors. That's because, examining, you know, occasionally requires not just picking 'n' poking 'n' drooling over other women and whatever flashed across your headlines today, but occasionally going to the library and cracking open a damn book; and I don't just mean the ones that tell you what you already know, either. (NOTE: it is in fact possible to do this, go to the fucking library and read a book, even, whilst wearing a pencil skirt and high heels. If Joe Patriarch doesn't think so, know what? You can kick him in the 'nads. This can be especially effective whilst wearing stilettos. You may need to rip a slit in the skirt first if there isn't already a kick-pleat. There: isn't that much more satisfying than endless agonizing over your "choices?")

2) Yah, there is such a thing as consciousness-raising. Some folks think it's effective for widespread political change, others don't. But the thing is? Even among the ones who DID find it useful, historically? You were supposed to raise your OWN frigging consciousness. Dumbass.

3) How much farther does this sort of "stone the slut in the name of feminism" crap have to go before it finally dawns on your enlightened, wrenching-itself-free-of-its-Patriarchal-moorings, modestly-covered ass that this whole deal smells REALLY familiar, and not in a good way?

As the saying goes, if you don't feel this applies to you? I probably ain't talking to you. But if the comfy shoe or sensibly modest Prada pump fits, baby.

hey, welcome, Damion! was just looking at your blog the other day and made a mental note to say something wrt your MichFest/TG post; saw you had some Mich people responding. I was gonna say, if you check the blogroll at the sidebar, frm the TG perspective, "Jay Sennett Jaywalks," for one, has spoken about this and related issues at some length. piny from Feministe does as well; he's around here and there, here I mean.

Is it paradoxical to say the more I read feminst blogs the more I distance myself from the 'club' but the more truely feminist I become? I keep wondering if the people writing these "This is what feminism is and if you don't agree, you're not allowed in" posts are out of college yet. Not to disparage youth, but I find that the older I get, the less I care about superficials. Look, if you wanna wear hooker boots and mini-skirts and tease your hair out to there, I don't care. What I care about is if you can do that safely, without having to worry that you're going to be assaulted or attacked, physically or verbally, for your choices. I want a world where a woman can wear what she damned well pleases and know she's still going to be treated with respect and not have to fear attack. I want a world where a woman gets paid equally to a man. I want a world where patriarchal ideas are thought of as 'quaint' and 'old-fashioned' and stand out, because no one believes them anymore. And we can't make that world a reality if we're calling each other out because we wear fucking make-up or high heels.

cringe. the p word. well, that might be true wrt "squareness," I think; but I don't think it's a one-one correlation at -all- with generation when it comes to the radical stuff, at least; not in that way anyway. A lot of women have had really bad and confusing experiences; and yes, it is a really bad and confusing time to be a young woman, I would say. I mean, when is it not, but: the confusion especially, the super-reactionary crap on one hand, the superficial sex-is-everywhere-thing on the other, and then layer on top of that maybe abuse as well...

it isn't a surprise, to me, that Dworkin (for example) still has such a strong following.

just, well, i'd like to think we could maybe synthesize and move on at this point; but well apparently it hasn't happened satisfactorily for a lot of people or people wouldn't keep going back to Dworkin (and company).

or, another way to look at it: we've been having fundamentalist revivals of all sorts all over the place; this is what happens in very destabilizing times, which these are. This is just one minor chord in a much bigger theme, I think, sometimes.